Saged Red Potatoes

What is it about potatoes that make them a perfect side dish (or less frequently, a main dish)? Is it their ease of preparation? Their neutral flavor that can be manipulated to one’s choosing? Their pleasing texture and filling nature? The fact that people are never allergic to them? I suppose it’s all of those things. Sometimes I feel bad for regions of the world that aren’t fortunate enough to enjoy the potato in their cuisine. However, I think we’ve all learned a good lesson from history about leaning on the potato too heavily (we still feel bad about the potato famine, Ireland. We’re sorry you had to learn the lesson for all of us). Although I think a potato famine could still be likely at a youth camp. My first summer here at Wawona, we counted the number of times we had potatoes at a meal. We were at seven by Tuesday night. That’s every meal in case you’re too lazy to do the math.

Somehow we never get tired of potatoes. Tots for breakfast, french fries for lunch and mashed potatoes for dinner. Yup, that’s fine with me. I’m actually surprised that I haven’t done a potato recipe yet. I’ve made them countless times since I started this blog. One of these days, I’ll share my moms mashed potato recipe and I’ll probably follow that up with Paulette’s crock pot potatoes. But the one I’m sharing with you now is what I whipped up to go with some veggie BBQ chicken I made the other night (that recipe is coming too). Instead of making the dairy filled mashed potatoes I usually do, I decided to cater to the vegan crowd here at camp and try something different by making some simple, but delicious boiled potatoes. Although they came out a little softer than I planned, they were still yummy.

Saged Red Potatoes
Serves 8

10-12 red potatoes, washed and chopped into bite size pieces
1/3 c. extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. black pepper
3 tsp. granulated garlic
1 Tbs. dried sage

Place potatoes in large pot and cover with water. Add a little salt and olive oil to water and boil over medium high heat until tender.

Drain potatoes and place in large bowl.

Drizzle with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and sprinkle with a little of the salt, pepper, garlic and sage. Stir and repeat until you’ve used up each ingredient.

Tips: Like I said before, I wish I had stopped boiling the potatoes sooner so they would have been firmer. This made it harder to stir in the ingredients and evenly disperse them. Don’t wait until they’re soft enough to mash. Remove them from the heat a few minutes earlier than that. Feel free to use more or less of the oil and seasonings. Taste the potatoes after each time you stir. Also, they’ll taste good with any herb or seasoning, but the sage was so good. Try that first.